A significant amount of information is now carried over fiber optic cables. Presently, the majority of telephone and data transmission lines are or are being converted to fiber optics. Fiber optic lines, however, have their own unique issues which must be addressed. One such issue is splicing fiber optic lines.
Fiber optic splices are generally found, among other places, where the lines are brought into a building. When large numbers of splices are required in one place, i.e. at an office building, the splices are contained in an enclosure or housing. The splice enclosure is usually round, has an end cap through which the cable enters and exits and a sleeve which covers the structure holding the splices. In this regard, the end cap usually includes a bracket mounted thereon that holds a number of splice trays having splice holders which secure the individual splices.
Since fiber optic cable cannot be extended and new or repaired splices use up additional cable, it is common to keep an excess amount of cable slack in the enclosure for later splices. This is currently done by merely leaving slack hanging in the sleeve portion of the enclosure. The slack of the 300-400 cables which are spliced in an enclosure can quickly become unmanageable.
Additionally, fiber optic cable has unique physical limitations including a minimum bend radius wherein bending the cable in a radius smaller than the minimum bend radius jeopardizes the integrity of the fiber cable. The minimum bend radius of typical fiber optic cable is about 11/2 inches.